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6. The knowledge of Chriſt crucified excels all other knowledge in point of pleaſure and ſatisfaction: "Wiſdom's ways are ways of pleaſantneſs, and all her paths are peace (x)[1]. The diſcovery of truth, abſolutely conſidered, is accompanied with an intellectual, and therefore with a manly pleaſure, vaſtly ſuperior to all the delights of ſenſe: and the more important and intereſting the truth is which we diſcover, the joy ariſing from it is ſo much the greater. O then, how raviſhing, how tranſporting beyond all expreſſion, muſt the diſcoveries of Chriſt be to the gracious ſoul! 'Their money periſh with them,' ſaid the famous Italian convert, 'who think all the gold of the Indies worthy to be compared with one hour's communion with the Lord Jeſus.' Surely the Chriſtian who knows that God is his God in Chriſt, has infinitely better reaſon than Cicero, upon finding the tomb of Archimedes, to cry out, I have found it out! I have found it out!
Moreover, the joy ariſing from the knowledge of Chriſt abides with the ſaints in the day of diſtreſs, making them to glorify God in the fire, and to cry out in the dark and cloudy night, Hallelujah! he does all things well!'
However much people living at eaſe may be pleaſed with the fine diſcourſes of the Heathen philoſophers about bearing misfortunes; yet, when one is deeply plunged in diſtreſs, all the fine ſpeeches of Seneca, the ſmart ſayings of Epictetus, and the ſolemn counſels of Antoninus, prove but Job's comforters: and a ſingle ſentence of the Bible, ſet home upon the heart by the Holy Ghoſt, affords infinitely greater conſolation than all the philoſophers put together. The ſweet ſenſe and experience of this, made a great and good man expreſs himſelf after this manner, in a letter to a friend:—'I deſire to bleſs his holy name who has delivered me from the painful purſuit of what they call learning, and from the fooliſh pleaſure of venting the little of it that I know. I write it on all my books, and deſire to have it engraven upon my heart;—"I determined to know nothing, but Jeſus Chriſt, and him crucified."
7. Lastly, The knowledge of Chriſt crucified excels all other knowledge in point of duration and continuance. That head which carries the richeſt cargo of human learning, will very ſoon be emptied of all, and laid down, cold, and ſenſeleſs, and ſilent in a grave.
- ↑ (x) Prov. iii, 17.
